Method Machine’s production of “Angels in America” — which it started earlier this year with the first part, “Millennium Approaches” — is the second staged version I’ve seen of Tony Kushner’s epic, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. I originally saw it nearly a decade ago, put on by a company in Virginia that had built an entirely […]
Eric Rezsnyak
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Festival of Food
It’s like Christmas for local foodies: the annual Festival of Food, put on by regional food bank Foodlink, is back on Monday, September 10, 6-9 p.m. Food and festivals go hand in hand in Rochester, but Festival of Food isn’t your average funnel cakes or kettle-corn stands. More than 100 area restaurants, farms, vineyards, breweries, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
M&T Bank Clothesline Festival
The grounds may be undergoing a substantial remodeling, but the M&T Bank Clothesline Festival will still be taking place Saturday and Sunday, September 8-9, at the Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave.). Clothesline is one of the premier arts and crafts festivals in the region, with more than 400 artists from 40 counties in New […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ellison Park Cyclecross Race
Although it has been around since 2008, this year the Rohrbach’s Ellison Park Cyclocross Race will expand to cover two days of bike racing and beer in Rochester’s Ellison Park (off Blossom Road) on Saturday and Sunday, September 8-9. Cyclocross combines road cycling and mountain biking. Cyclists compete on 1.5- to 2-mile circuits that include […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
“So You Think You Can Dance” 2012: Top 6 revealed (and how we got here)
This week’s show opened with a fairly sloppy and unconnected opening number – there were multiple instances of the dancers not being in synch – by apparently new choreographer Peter Chu. It did very little for me, and the whole thing felt poorly rehearsed. Then we got to the meat of the show, featuring Season […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
“Face Off” Season 3, Episode 2: The pirate life for me
Following the excitement of the season premiere’s team challenge — and I’m referring more to Joe’s five-star nuttery than the “Star Wars” task — last night’s episode gave us a better sense of the S3 competitors’ individual skill levels. Seems to me that, on the whole, we have a bunch of very good technicians, but […]
Posted inMusic
Kelly Clarkson
More than a decade after her crowning as the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson remains the de facto answer when people try to legitimize televised singing contests. Since leaving the danger stools Clarkson has more than paid her dues, selling millions of albums and singles thanks to her incredibly catchy songs (“Breakaway,” “Since U Been […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Black Party
Summer — wasn’t that fun? Believe it or not, dear readers, we are hurtling toward autumn. The trees will start changing soon. Those shorts will magically transform into corduroy pants. The sunscreen in your car will be replaced by a shovel and an ice scraper. Gird your loins, because the cold months are a-comin’. So […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
UPDATE: Rochester Fringe Festival additions
The First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival today announced several more events for its inaugural festival, which will take place September 19-23 in downtown Rochester. -The high-flying dance troupe Bandaloop, which will perform an aerial dance number on the side of the 21-story HSBCPlaza on Thursday, September 20, has added a second performance on Saturday, September […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
STUDENT SURVIVAL GUIDE ’12: Introduction
I was never a math major, but if my calculations are correct,
18-year-olds starting their freshman year at college this fall were born in or around 1994. Which means you whippersnappers might not fully appreciate the super-cool concept for the cover of this Student Survival Guide, because you weren’t alive for any of the 1980’s. Which means I feel sad for you. So for your first college assignment, I task you with (legally) downloading music by Duran Duran, The Go-Gos, Culture Club, Erasure, and their contemporaries. You will thank me later.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Sisters are doing it for themselves
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX If you only paid attention to the promotional materials, you might think — as I did — that “The Calamari Sisters’ Big Fat Italian Wedding” is a campy, broadly comic, song-and-dance-filled trifle based around ethnic and gender stereotypes. And, hey, it is all of those things. But what might surprise you — as it […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”: Rating the “All Stars” cast
This fall, a historic decision will impact the future of this nation, and possibly the world. No, not the presidential election. We’re fucked no matter who takes that. I’m talking about who will ultimately be crowned the winner of “RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race,” which brings back a dozen of the baddest bitches from the […]
